My Happy Marriage (LN) - Volume 5 - Chapter Pr

  PROLOGUE  

It was the night of New Year’s Eve.

The sun had already dipped below the horizon, enveloping the land in a frigid twilight so still that it smothered all signs of life.

Crown Prince Takaihito peered out of the open paper screen window and gazed at the hazy outline of the withered courtyard against the darkness. Then he heard a voice from behind.

“Are you absolutely sure about this?”

The man who had asked the question was Masahi Ookaito, a key figure in the military with a strong relationship to Takaihito.

In that dim and dreary room was also a third figure, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, who served as an aide to the emperor in governmental matters.

A man named Takakura had assumed the position when Takaihito began to take control of the government in the emperor’s stead.

Though young, the current Lord Keeper was one of the few people to have earned the crown prince’s trust, owing to his sharp, flexible mind. It helped that the two men were both in their early thirties.

Takaihito nodded softly in response to Ookaito’s question without turning to face him.

The Imperial Palace’s great purification ritual had wrapped up earlier that evening, and almost everyone had left to prepare for the busy days ahead.

This included two of the emperor’s other assistants, the Grand Chamberlain and Minister of the Imperial Household. Now it was just the three of them.

“I’m certain of it, yes. The people are not to be informed of His Majesty the emperor’s disappearance. We should also avoid fully mobilizing the military in the search, lest someone catch on… Regardless, we won’t be finding His Majesty tonight. In the meantime, it’s vital that everyone rest for what’s ahead. There won’t be any time to slow down once New Year arrives.”

The Gifted Communion’s abduction of the emperor had plunged the government into crisis. However, Takaihito was intentionally obscuring the grave truth from the citizenry.

Whenever he closed his eyes, he would see a vision from beyond the present. A scene of strife in the wintry imperial capital so vivid that he could nearly hear the people’s screams. It wouldn’t be long before his vision became reality.

Takaihito could only see a few possible futures, and the paths that led to these fates were obscured to him. Yet this time, he could feel it in his bones. The future he glimpsed was an unavoidable torrent.

With that in mind, the best course of action was to avoid any uproar and gather strength in preparation for the tidal wave to come.

Just then, a cold gust of wind picked up, lifting the last few leaves on the ground into the air and blowing through the window.

Feeling a shudder coming on, Takaihito shut the paper screen.

“The emperor is unharmed, yes?” Takakura asked, as if to make extra sure of the fact.

“Yes, quite unharmed. The Gifted Communion would not go through the effort of abducting him simply to take his life,” Takaihito answered before sitting himself down on a floor cushion. “Personally, I would have been fine with His Majesty leaving this world entirely, but—”

“What are you saying…? That’s going too far,” Ookaito interjected with a hint of reproachment in his voice upon hearing Takaihito’s unguarded, self-deprecating thoughts. Takakura was at a loss for words.

The crown prince raised the corners of his lips slightly at the candid responses of his vassals.

He was the ruler of the country, the steward of the people’s welfare; that was all the more reason to wish for his own father’s death. Still, even Takaihito was taken aback at the coldness of his words now that Ookaito had pointed it out.

His Majesty was all but dead yet retained the authority of his title, while his successor exercised true power in an unofficial capacity. It was all too clear that their simultaneous existence would only lead to strife.

Everything would have been so much simpler to handle if the Gifted Communion had killed the emperor outright.

Indeed, thoughts like these would make me seem quite inhuman, would they not?

The citizens revered Takaihito’s family for the divine blood that ran through their veins. Surely that explains my coldheartedness, he thought with a mixture of humor and irony.

“Now then, you two. Have you made progress on your ends?”

“I’d like to say things have gone off without a hitch…but they aren’t looking good. There are many dissenting voices in the military, so I think we’ll have a difficult road ahead.”

“The same goes on my end as well. There’s been a lot of pushback from politicians and bureaucrats, including the Minister of the Imperial Household.”

“I’m not surprised. However, as this is the most efficient option available, I would like you to move ahead with it in some manner.”

“I will do my utmost.”

“As you wish.”

“Please hurry as much as you can.”

Watching both Ookaito and Takakura leave with a reverential bow, Takaihito leisurely rested his cheek in his hand.

His power of Divine Revelation was still incomplete.

Its full workings were unknown, but he did know that he wouldn’t be able to obtain the full Gift of Divine Revelation until he officially ascended the throne and was recognized by the gods…or so he’d been told.

Like the crown princes who had come before him, Takaihito prophesized unstable futures. At times, he would see glimpses of the far future, while at others, he would be shown a vision a few seconds ahead in time. He could not control which futures he saw.

Just the other day, in fact, the deficiencies of his abilities had backfired. The resulting confusion in the field had nearly caused Miyo Saimori to be captured by the Gifted Communion.

Panicking about his powers would get him nowhere, yet that didn’t change the fact he needed to surmise what was to come from what fragments of the future he could see, and develop countermeasures against any unsavory outcomes.

“…Is this truly the right path to go down?”

He could see several of the pieces that would need to be in place to achieve the future he desired. Yet there were still some that were missing, and he was always scrambling for more.

The question was would his latest plan be for good or ill?

For all of his connections with the divine, Takaihito could only rack his brain over the matter, just like any other ordinary person.